Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
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UK version.

First published in USA, then later released in Europe as "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles". The two versions has some graphic differences in the intro/menus and different ingame music (USA version only got the annoying Hatlelid tune.)

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Differences US vs UK version (from http://carlmuller.co.uk/c64.htm) :

The UK conversion was required because C64s in Europe generally had tape decks, whilst in the USA they had floppy disks (1541s). The graphics, maps and general gameplay ideas were taken from the original US version. The intro and outro sequences were grabbed wholesale, including the programming and music. The in-game programming was however rewritten from scratch, and the existing maps rearranged by myself and Nick Pelling, to allow for a more linear structure suitable for a tape-based game. The UK version in-game music was written by Tiny Williams (Sound Images) for a ludicrously small fee, so low it embarressed the Mirrorsoft Producer (John Norledge).

The Canadian version was written by an uncredited team of programmers, including Alan Stewart (according to the source code) and David Galloway (according to email). Art was credited to Mike Smith, Athena Bax, Michael Hiebert and Tom Singleton. The music was converted by Kris Hatelid from the original by Mike Sokyrka and Ivan Allen. The data came on several Amiga format floppy disks, so I assume that they used an Amiga based development system. It took a long time of playing with "dos2dos" to convert the raw data to PC format. To develop the code we used PDS on MS-DOS. This had a habit of blowing up C64s if it was plugged in wrong.

The two versions can be telled apart by these differences:
Only the UK release has a tape version. 
The Canadian version uses four disk sides; the UK version uses two disk sides. The introduction sequence and compression schemes were different. 
The Canadian version has the in-game score centred; the UK version has it in a static position with leading zeroes. 
The Canadian version is "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". The UK version is "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" since the BBC thought that "Ninja" was too strong a word to use in a kids cartoon. IIRC the Konami version may use both names. 
The Canadian version was released some months before the UK version, which was finished on Dec 4th 1990, and rushed to the duplicators by Mike Merrin (who had to wait overnight at the train station to get back, poor soul). 
The Canadian version uses the random access of disc to allow backtracking. The linear nature of tape (carried through to the UK disk version) means it is strictly linear between level loads, although several map segments may be included in a level.

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With April O'Neil held hostage by The Shredder's thugs, Bebop and Rocksteady, once again, it's up to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to come to her rescue! Play as all four of the turtle heroes, rescue April, and then rescue your sensei Splinter from Mecha-Turtles clutches than go after The Shredder deep in the bowels of The Technodrome itself.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an action game based on the late eighties/early nineties cartoon series of the same name. Play as Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Donatello and Raphael (one turtle only, but the ability to swap between turtles at any time) as you save your friends and battle The Shredder and his cronies. There are no 'lives', as such - when you lose a turtle, he becomes 'captured', and you cannot use him again until you rescue him from a place hidden in the overworld.

Gameplay takes place in two perspectives: a top-down view, which lets you run around and explore buildings, sewers and other places. When entering places from the top-down view, the perspective shifts to a side-scrolling view, where most of the battling takes place. In addition to each turtle's main weapon, sub-weapons (such as shuriken) can be acquired, to use at foes - these have a limited use.

Alternate Titles

"激亀忍者伝" -- Japanese spelling
"Tortugas Ninja" -- Spanish title
"Tortues Ninja" -- French title
"TMNT" -- Abbreviated title
"TMHT" -- Abbreviated title (Europe)
"Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" -- European title
"Gekikame Ninja Den" -- Japanese title
"げきかめにんじゃでん" -- Alternate Japanese spelling (Hiragana)

Trivia

In the movie "The Wizard", Jimmy is seen playing the Turtles at the arcade at the Casino in Reno. But of course, this ain't from the arcade but Nintendo wanted their game in it. How greedy!

The translated Japanese title is "Ultra Turtle Ninja Legend". 

The reason why the Turtles all wear red masks on the cover is because that's how it was in the comics.

TMNT for DOS was one of a few games from the period that featured copy-protection via a code sheet printed on so-called "copy proof" paper. This is dark maroon paper with black ink which most black and white copiers would not be able to copy in a readable form. The code sheet which was stapled into the game manual, featured hundreds of four digit numbers in a grid which you needed to look up to get into the game.


http://www.mobygames.com/game/c64/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles/trivia
